BMW M440i xdrive
Range-topping 4-series marks a welcome return to form for BMW’S mid-sized coupe line
IT’S THE GRILLE, ISN’T IT? YOU CAN’T stop staring at it, can you? The talk of the internet, the subject of memes, a design statement that has left many asking what on earth is going on at BMW under the design direction of Domagoj Dukec. Change, primarily. Just as Chris Bangle threw out the BMW design rule book nearly 20 years ago, so Dukec is doing the same again today as he moves the company away from what he considers years of play-it-safe styling.
We’ll get the looks out of the way early doors, because the M440i xdrive is one of the best sports coupes you can buy and we’d rather focus on that. It’s a shot in the arm for those who enjoy driving but have been left disappointed in recent times by manufacturers dressing up mutton and passing it off as a field-fresh lamb when it comes to cars in this class.
The design of the new 4-series is intended to provide the model with its own identity against the 3-series on which it is based. With it being one of BMW’S most successful spin-offs (over 800,000 4-series Coupés, Cabriolets and Gran Coupés were sold in 2019) you can understand why the company would want to continue to nurture the model line by giving it its own unique appearance to differentiate it from the rest of its close-knit family. It’s certainly unique, we’ll give BMW that.
In a dark colour, with black trim (Shadowline Plus in BMW speak) replacing chrome, it’s less jarring in the metal than perhaps the images suggest. But some will never get over it, others will soften to it, and there will be those who neither care about nor actually like such a bold design statement. And if it’s purely the size of the grille that’s an issue, BMW can only be accused of following Audi when it comes to oversized facial features.
For a BMW coupe the M440i’s overall design is perhaps a little fussy for some tastes, too. In the past, 3-series-based coupes have always had a
simplicity to their look, with clean lines and simple surface details, but there is no hiding from the fact that there is a lot going on with the 440i’s look as a whole. Although black wheels don’t help when it comes to defining where the body ends and the wheels and tyres start, being longer, taller and wider than the car it replaces there’s a lot of pressed aluminium and steel to take in.
Beneath the M440i’s new look is a further adaptation of BMW’S modular CLAR steel and aluminium platform, as used by the 3-series. It also borrows that car’s Macpherson strut front suspension and five-link rear layout, both retuned accordingly and with a shorter spring fitted along with adaptive dampers. The front geometry is adapted for the coupe’s specific needs, too, and the model sits 15mm lower than the car it replaces.
The 440 rides with a Gt-esque pliancy – even on 19-inch wheels and tyres – but not at the expense of its sports coupe aspirations. There’s a tightness
to its body control when you begin to lean on the chassis and it feels incredibly fluid and linear as you begin to push on. It’s easy to build a rhythm quickly, understanding how to get the best from it in a relatively short space of time.
A quick and heavy-handed approach to turn-in results in a glassy feel back through the variableweight steering as the front begins to struggle to hold its line and the xdrive four-wheel drive is a little slow to divert the unwanted propulsion to the rear axle (a maximum of 40 per cent of the B58 straight-six’s power and torque is sent to the front axle). Slow your entry speed and the M440i turns in sharper and with more clarity and allows you to hook up the throttle much earlier to drive out of the corner. In a car laden with technology it responds to a very traditional approach. As we have found with our M340i xdrive Fast Fleeter, slackening off the traction control a level allows the 440 to breathe with the surface a degree more, too. The wider slip angle results in no loss of forward propulsion, with the messaging coming back to you much clearer and the standard M differential in the rear axle able to perform with more freedom and a wider remit when the shackles are loosened.
And it’s welcome, because this is a quick car. Actually, make that a deceptively quick one. With 369bhp and the same number when it comes to torque, it doesn’t hang around. At 1730kg it’s not as sprightly off the line as those output numbers suggest, but when it gets into the meat of its power and torque delivery you find yourself traveling at a pace more akin to that of a full-blown M-car.
The 3-litre straight-six whips through the revs, instantly on the boil from the lowest of engine speeds before building through a meaty midrange and going on to a crescendo that’s almost naturally aspirated in its crispness. The eight-speed torque-converter auto (no manual, sorry) is equally reactive when it comes to serving the next gear, especially so if you’ve opted for the transmission’s quickest shift speed to accompany the engine’s Sport Plus mode. Set up this way the 440i’s powertrain is at its most responsive and its maximum potential. It’s certainly a more authentic and engaging experience than that served by the MERC-AMG C43.
You sit lower in the M440i than you do in a 3-series equivalent thanks to the seat being positioned lower in the car and the windscreen being more steeply angled. This results in a feeling
‘It’s an engaging proposition for those unable to stretch to a full-blown M-car’
of sitting in rather than on the car, your legs straight out in front of you like in BMW’S of old. Ergonomically it’s an inviting place to be, the three-spoke wheel – thankfully not full M-car fat in rim diameter – offers plenty of adjustment, too. The gearshift paddles lack tactility, though; like so many they are too small and feel more of an afterthought than a considered piece of design. It’s time manufacturers started to offer different sized paddles as an option, or the aftermarket sector could up its game and steal a march on the slow-to-respond OEMS.
Yet this is a small blot in the copy book. As a sports car the M440i glides under the radar at quite a rate of knots. Its constituent parts combine to create an engaging proposition for those unable to stretch to a full-blown M-car, or who require the more practical approach a 4-series coupe offers over a fully fledged two-seat sports car. It’s a properly well sorted and hooked up machine, too. Quick, regardless of the powertrain modes selected, and controlled and engaged when pushed, there’s a layer of polish that has been missing from such models in BMW’S recent past. This range topping 4-series also feels a step up from its smaller-engined cousins when it comes to enjoying the process of driving.
There’s an added layer of duality, too. For while being an M Performance model the focus is naturally on performance, the 440i is also well rounded and an unexpected junior GT car. When you’re not tearing around the countryside it soothes and comforts. The interior is whisper quiet, solid too, and the whole car oozes a charm and a quality that creates enough distance between it and, say, a 420d. It’s very reminiscent of the E46 330Ci in how it exudes a calm confidence when being stretched and a performance window that’s both clearer and wider than anyone expected.
Big-engined, small-bodied coupes have been a BMW forte for generations. While it perhaps didn’t invent the genre it did at least help shape it and most definitely led it while others followed some way behind. In recent years that hasn’t always been the case, with the offerings from Munich feeling no more involving than the equivalents from Stuttgart or Ingolstadt. That’s no longer the case, with the M440i xdrive being a demonstration that BMW’S engineers have found their form once again. If you dismiss it because of its looks, or what others think of its appearance, you’ll be passing over the best in class.
Engine In-line 6-cyl, 2998cc, turbocharged Power 369bhp @ 5500-6500rpm Torque 369lb ft @ 1900-5000rpm Weight 1740kg (215bhp/ton) 0-62mph 4.5sec Top speed 155mph (limited) Basic price £54,645 + Punchy drivetrain with a chassis to match… - …will be overlooked because of that grille evo rating ★★★★ ⯪